Landscape structure influences the use of social information in an insectivorous bat
In anthropogenic landscapes, aerial insectivores are often confronted with variable habitat complexity, which may influence the distribution of prey. Yet, high mobility may allow aerial insectivores to adjust their foraging strategy to different prey distributions. We investigated whether aerial‐hun...
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crwiley:10.1111/oik.07158 2024-03-31T07:54:40+00:00 Landscape structure influences the use of social information in an insectivorous bat Roeleke, Manuel Blohm, Torsten Hoffmeister, Uwe Marggraf, Lara Schlägel, Ulrike E. Teige, Tobias Voigt, Christian C. 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/oik.07158 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Foik.07158 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/oik.07158 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/oik.07158 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Oikos volume 129, issue 6, page 912-923 ISSN 0030-1299 1600-0706 Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 2020 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.07158 2024-03-04T13:00:28Z In anthropogenic landscapes, aerial insectivores are often confronted with variable habitat complexity, which may influence the distribution of prey. Yet, high mobility may allow aerial insectivores to adjust their foraging strategy to different prey distributions. We investigated whether aerial‐hunting common noctules Nyctalus noctula adjust their foraging strategy to landscapes with different habitat complexity and assumingly different prey distribution. We hypothesized that the movement behaviour of hunting common noctules and changes of movement behaviour in reaction towards conspecifics would depend on whether they hunt in a structurally poor cropland dominated landscape or a structurally rich forest dominated landscape. We tracked flight paths of common noctules in northeastern Germany using GPS loggers equipped with an ultrasonic microphone that recorded foraging events and presence of conspecifics. Above cropland, common noctules hunted mainly during bouts of highly tortuous and area restricted movements (ARM). Bats switched from straight flight to ARM after encountering conspecifics. In the forested landscape, common noctules hunted both during ARM and during straight flights. The onset of ARM did not correlate with the presence of conspecifics. Common noctules showed a lower feeding rate and encountered more conspecifics above the forested than above the cropland dominated landscape. We conjecture that prey distribution above cropland was patchy and unpredictable, thus making eavesdropping on hunting conspecifics crucial for bats during search for prey patches. In contrast, small scale structural diversity of the forested landscape possibly led to a more homogeneous prey distribution at the landscape scale, thus enabling bats to find sufficient food independent of conspecific presence. This suggests that predators depending on ephemeral prey can increase their foraging success in structurally poor landscapes by using social information provided by conspecifics. Hence, a minimum population density might ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Nyctalus noctula Wiley Online Library Oikos 129 6 912 923 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
topic |
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Roeleke, Manuel Blohm, Torsten Hoffmeister, Uwe Marggraf, Lara Schlägel, Ulrike E. Teige, Tobias Voigt, Christian C. Landscape structure influences the use of social information in an insectivorous bat |
topic_facet |
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
In anthropogenic landscapes, aerial insectivores are often confronted with variable habitat complexity, which may influence the distribution of prey. Yet, high mobility may allow aerial insectivores to adjust their foraging strategy to different prey distributions. We investigated whether aerial‐hunting common noctules Nyctalus noctula adjust their foraging strategy to landscapes with different habitat complexity and assumingly different prey distribution. We hypothesized that the movement behaviour of hunting common noctules and changes of movement behaviour in reaction towards conspecifics would depend on whether they hunt in a structurally poor cropland dominated landscape or a structurally rich forest dominated landscape. We tracked flight paths of common noctules in northeastern Germany using GPS loggers equipped with an ultrasonic microphone that recorded foraging events and presence of conspecifics. Above cropland, common noctules hunted mainly during bouts of highly tortuous and area restricted movements (ARM). Bats switched from straight flight to ARM after encountering conspecifics. In the forested landscape, common noctules hunted both during ARM and during straight flights. The onset of ARM did not correlate with the presence of conspecifics. Common noctules showed a lower feeding rate and encountered more conspecifics above the forested than above the cropland dominated landscape. We conjecture that prey distribution above cropland was patchy and unpredictable, thus making eavesdropping on hunting conspecifics crucial for bats during search for prey patches. In contrast, small scale structural diversity of the forested landscape possibly led to a more homogeneous prey distribution at the landscape scale, thus enabling bats to find sufficient food independent of conspecific presence. This suggests that predators depending on ephemeral prey can increase their foraging success in structurally poor landscapes by using social information provided by conspecifics. Hence, a minimum population density might ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Roeleke, Manuel Blohm, Torsten Hoffmeister, Uwe Marggraf, Lara Schlägel, Ulrike E. Teige, Tobias Voigt, Christian C. |
author_facet |
Roeleke, Manuel Blohm, Torsten Hoffmeister, Uwe Marggraf, Lara Schlägel, Ulrike E. Teige, Tobias Voigt, Christian C. |
author_sort |
Roeleke, Manuel |
title |
Landscape structure influences the use of social information in an insectivorous bat |
title_short |
Landscape structure influences the use of social information in an insectivorous bat |
title_full |
Landscape structure influences the use of social information in an insectivorous bat |
title_fullStr |
Landscape structure influences the use of social information in an insectivorous bat |
title_full_unstemmed |
Landscape structure influences the use of social information in an insectivorous bat |
title_sort |
landscape structure influences the use of social information in an insectivorous bat |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/oik.07158 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Foik.07158 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/oik.07158 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/oik.07158 |
genre |
Nyctalus noctula |
genre_facet |
Nyctalus noctula |
op_source |
Oikos volume 129, issue 6, page 912-923 ISSN 0030-1299 1600-0706 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.07158 |
container_title |
Oikos |
container_volume |
129 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
912 |
op_container_end_page |
923 |
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1795035772780281856 |